The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-11-19
Odors Absorbed by Milk.

guard against injury from TINS source
never permitting milk to remain for a
longer time than is absolutely necessa-
~ In an atmosphere laden with odors
that are likely TO impart a dsagreeable
flavor to the cream or butter to be
made from 1t, says The Practical Farm
er. But 1t is to be feared that far too
many farmers who do not make n
specially of dairying are careless in
this matter. and frequently leave the
freshly drawn milk standing in the sta
BILE or barn for some little time after
milking, where 1t is exposed to the
odors that are always prevalent in such
places. When the milk is taken to the
house and set for the cream to rise, II
is also frequently placed in cellars
where there are vegetables, or in rooms
from which the odors from the kitch-
en- are not rigidly excluded, as they
always should be.
We will not say that fair quality of
butter cannot be made by those who
have not ut command all the modern
appliances; but we do say that first
class article cannot be produced from
milk exposed to an atmosphere laden
with foul odors of any kind. Outside
of the best dairy regions. or where but
ter and cheese are specillties Of the
farmer. II is very difficult to find real
ly good article of butter; and in proof
of the truth of this. we have only to ex-
anime that which is taken in trade at
country stores and groceries, or gather
ed by peddlers and small dealers
throughout the country. We know
that 1t is very difficult to convince the
ordinary farmers wife that the butter
she is making from week to week is
not really "gilt edged" although she
may admit that her milk room is often
invaded by fumes emanating from cook
ing meat and vegetables in the kitchen,
and that in the press of work she can
not always skim the milk or churn quite
as often or regularly as she would like
to; but even with these irregularities in
the way, she is inclined TO think that
there are no good reasons for consider
ing her butter anything less than first
class.
Upon this subject of absorption by
milk of various volatile substances, DIR.
Dougall. of Glasgow, has published an
excellent paper. To test the absorptive
powers Dr. Dougall enclosed in a jar
a portion of certain substances giving
off emanatons, together with uniform
quantity of milk, for period of eight
hours. At the end of this time some of
the milk was drawn by means of
pipette from the lowest stratum of the
vessel exposed in the jar, with the
following results: Milk exposed to
turpentne, onions, tobacco smoke,
creosote, and parailine oil smelled very
strong of these substances. Putrid fish
gave the milk very bad odor Coal
gas, cabbage somewhat decayed, stale
cheese, and assafGtida gave the milk
distinct odor, while ammonia, camphor,
and chloroform only impaired moder-
ate odor.
From this experiment il would APP
pear that the milk absorbed the emana-
lions of all the substances to which it
had been exposed, and further, that all
the specimens examined retained their
distinctive odors .ar fully fourteen
hours after their re,novai fro... no class
lar in which they had tesa :>r.r' !.
According to DR.. Dougali, Cream .ay
be regarded us acting In much the
same manner as milk; for while it con-
tains less water than milk, it has special
qualities of its own, which may perhaps
make il even more liable to retain Of
fensve and dangerous amanations than
the parent fluid itself.
Abundant evidence has, however,
been given to show that far more care
is needed in connection with the stor-
age of milk than has heretofore been
re arded us necessary, especially where
milk and cream are kept In apart
ments or wards occupied by sick per-
sons. If the emanations to which the
milk is exposed are of diseased and
dangerous quality, it is all but impossi-
BILE that the sample can remain free
from offensive and dangerous proper
ties and it would become an invariable
rule to keep as little milk as possible
in sick rooms, and never to allow a
supply which has thus been exposed
to unwholesome emanatons to be used
ms food. Prof l.. b. Arnold, referring
to this subject of absorption in his
"American Dairying," says: The in.
iluence of the air upon the milk is not
confined to the absorption of the spores
which produce acidity. Spores OF
every kind are taken in as well. Not
does the absorptive power of milk end
with absorbing living germs; 1t takes
in odors as freely as infectious germs.
1t is a fact which cannot be too strong
ly impressed upon the mind of every
one connected with the care of milk or
the manufacture of milk products, that
milk takes in every odor as well as the
seeds of every ferment that blows over
its surface. -
All liquids, however, have absorb
emf powers, and il pure water is left